Abul Abbas
Abul Abbas (also Abul Abaz ; † 810 ) was an elephant who was given to the Frankish emperor Charlemagne by Caliph Hārūn ar-Raschīd . He was the first named and documented elephant north of the Alps .
Life
Abul Abbas was from India ; it was named, presumably by the caliph himself, after the founder of the Abbasid dynasty, Abu l-Abbas as-Saffah († 754, Arabic أبو العباس السفاح). How old he was when he came to Aachen is unknown.
In 801 Abul Abbas, accompanied by Isaak , a Jewish merchant, interpreter and envoy from Charles, was sent from Baghdad to Aachen together with a small delegation . In October of that year, a stay near La Spezia in Italy is documented; in Vercelli , not far from Lake Maggiore , they stayed over the winter. On July 20, 802, Abul Abbas arrived in Aachen and was given to Emperor Karl there, along with a number of gifts.
His existence in Aachen only lasted a few years, during which, as it is said, the Kaiser liked to take him with him on trips, "as a living insignia of his power". According to the report of the Franconian Reichsannalen , the elephant "suddenly" died in the summer of 810 after crossing the Rhine in Lippeham .
Legends
Numerous legends soon grew up around Abul Abbas. He was a white elephant and was carried as a weapon on the occasion of Karl's campaign against the Frisians in 804, which, according to tradition, has proven fatal for him, because he is said to have drowned when crossing the Rhine. According to other information, the elephant succumbed to pneumonia, which he contracted while crossing the Rhine.
In the few contemporary sources there is no mention of the white color, nor are details passed on about the death of the animal or its use as a weapon of war. The Frankish imperial annals contain only brief reports about his transport (801), his handover to the emperor (802) and his death (810).
Afterlife
In the middle of the 18th century it was reported that elephant bones were found in a field on the Rhine near the mouth of the Lippe ; one was of the opinion that this could only have been the elephant of Emperor Charles. The thighbones found apparently ended up in a private art and rarities cabinet . However, in prehistoric times, different species of elephants occurred naturally in Central Europe , which could explain such finds.
In the famous Jobsiade (first published in 1784) the death of the animal is lamented: "Even Bucephalus and Rossinanten , / Abulabas the elephant, / Roß Bayard and Balaam's donkey / Took friend Hein for morning bread."
The first elephant noted on Franconian soil, as some believe, became a bogey in the history of the German language , namely by deriving this word from the name of the imperial elephant via Bubaz , Pubatsch and Pupanz ; this origin of the terrifying figure is not documented in the common etymological dictionaries. It seems that Abul Abbas' stay north of the Alps was too short to provide a lasting image of him.
Curiosities
The name of the elephant seems to have inspired Karl May when choosing a name for his character Hajji Halef Omar : Hajji Halef Omar Ben Hajji Abul Abbas Ibn Hajji Dawuhd al Gossarah (Abul Abbas represents his father's name here).
See also
literature
- Achim Thomas Hack : Abul Abaz. On the biography of an elephant . Scientific publisher Dr. Michael P. Bachmann, Badenweiler 2011, ISBN 978-3-940523-12-9 . ( Online extracts )
- Richard Fletcher: An elephant for Charlemagne - Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2005.
- Hans Altmann: The journey of Isaac and the political situation around 800. In: Ex oriente. Isaac and the white elephant. Baghdad - Jerusalem - Aachen. A journey through three cultures around 800 and today. Catalog book for the exhibition in the town hall, cathedral and cathedral treasury in Aachen from June 30 to September 28, 2003, vol. 1 The journey of Isaac Baghdad. Zabern, Aachen 2003, pp. 28–35.
- Hannelore Kühl, Brigitte Erm: Abul Abas. The story of the white elephant at the court of Charlemagne. Alano Verlag, Aachen 1985, ISBN 3-924007-12-8 .
- Karen Duve , Thies Völker: Lexicon of famous animals. 1200 animals from history, film, fairy tales, literature and mythology . Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-8218-0505-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stephan Oettermann : The curiosity of the elephant. An Elephantographia Curiosa . Syndicate, Frankfurt am Main 1982; P. 97 ff., With numerous sources cited. ISBN 3-8108-0203-4
- ↑ Friedrich Kurz (Ed.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 6: Annales regni Francorum inde from a. 741 usque ad a. 829, qui dicuntur Annales Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi. Hannover 1895, p. 131 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitalisat ) Cf. also Regesta Imperii RI Opac
- ↑ See: Michael Gorgas: Animals - Emperor - Anecdotes . Vindelica-Verlag, Gersthofen 1986, ISBN 3-926275-00-6 ; Wolfgang Knabe: On the trail of the first German merchants in India. Research expedition with the Mercator along the west coast and to the amines . Writings of the Central Institute for German Emigration Research in the VDA series 2, field research; Volume 1. Verlag Moderne Medien, Anhausen 1993, ISBN 3-929720-01-9
- ↑ Friedrich Kurz (Ed.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 6: Annales regni Francorum inde from a. 741 usque ad a. 829, qui dicuntur Annales Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi. Hannover 1895, p. 116 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
- ↑ Friedrich Kurz (Ed.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 6: Annales regni Francorum inde from a. 741 usque ad a. 829, qui dicuntur Annales Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi. Hannover 1895, p. 117 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
- ↑ Duisburg intelligence sheet No. XXVII. from July 7th 1750 JG Leidenfrost: News of some remains of the elephant Abdulabbas
- ↑ JH Nunningius, JH Cohn Hausen: De size femoris Elephantini . In: Commercii literarii dissertationes epistolicae. Frankfurt am Main, 1746; Epistle IV, pp. 44ff. After: Oettermann (1982) p. 98, note 117
- ↑ Legendary horse from the sagas of Charlemagne
- ^ Carl Arnold Kortum: The Jobsiade . Dortmund 1799 ( chapter 37, verse 28 )
- ↑ See Oettermann (1982) pp. 98f.
- ↑ Claus-Artur Scheier : "... and sat me on Kaiser Karl's chair": Identity and identification in the historical-philosophical reflex . Cramer, Braunschweig 2007, p. 6 ( online [accessed on July 12, 2014] “Halef's father is called Abul Abbas like the white elephant who, coming from Baghdad, was given a diplomatic gift to Emperor Karl on July 20, 802 from the Jewish-Italian merchant Isaak in Aachen of the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al Raschid. So little Halef is the son of a historical-elephant-like gift to the great Karl. ").
- ↑ See Sabine Obermaier: Review of: Hack, Achim Thomas: Abul Abaz. On the biography of an elephant. Badenweiler 2011 . In: H-Soz-u-Kult , March 28, 2012; Replica of the author . In: H-Soz-u-Kult from March 30, 2012